BBC News with Stewart Macintosh

The official Chinese news agency has said anyone violating Communist Party discipline will be severely punished no matter how high their position. The warning was published a few hours after an announcement that the disgraced former politburo member Bo Xilai had been expelled from the party, and would be facing serious charges. Damian Grammaticas reports from Beijing.

For months, Chinese leadership has appeared paralyzed by the scandal surrounding the death of the British businessman Neil Heywood. Today, it has sought to reassert its authority on the main evening news.

Denouncement came that Bo Xilai, once a contender for a top leadership post, has been expelled from the Communist Party. He's accused of a litany of crimes: abusing his power, protecting his wife from investigations, receiving huge bribes and having improper sexual relations with a number of women. He's now expected to face criminal trial.

The American State Department has removed the Iranian opposition group, the People's Mujahideen of Iran, or MEK, from its list of terrorist organizations. The move comes after intense lobbying by the MEK and its renunciation of violence. MEK's assets will be unfrozen, and / Americans can have contact with the group, which was established in the 1960s to oppose the Shah. The MEK now says it wants to overthrow the government in Tehran through peaceful means.

The Nigerian ambassador to Saudi Arabia says he's been denied access to hundreds of Nigerian women being held under detention at Jeddah airport. Saudi officials say they'd arrived as Hajj pilgrims without the required male escort, and a spokesman said they violated Saudi regulations. More than 1,000 have already been deported. One of the Nigerian women, who was detained, said they'd received discriminatory treatment.